TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And I just would stand by those comments.

Dan Kurnos: Okay. Got it. Thank you. Good to see guys, keep on desktop. Appreciate the color.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Steven Cahall with Wells Fargo.

Steven Cahall: Thanks. Dave maybe first just to follow on Dan’s question a little bit. So I know you and a lot of your peers have been consistent that the growth rate of reverse comp is lower than what it used to be that new paradigm that you talked about. I think, what a lot of us are trying to figure out is, what the key discussion points are when you’re talking to a network partner like ABC, who you just renewed or NBC that you have coming up in relation to how their streaming plans affect your business. Disney has been pretty clear that they intend to take sports direct to consumer. That has some impact on your ABC stations, and same with NBC. So wondering, if you could just help us frame how you think about the future and how you’re kind of defending against more especially sports content going on to streaming?

And then Victoria, you all had some discretionary Q3 share repurchases. What’s your appetite to continue down that path? Are you allowed to during the upcoming $325 million ASR or is that just something that you’ll kind of wait and see after the ASR where the stock price is? Thank you.

Dave Lougee: I’ll take the first one — first one first. I we have — as you know as we’re public about we have one large negotiation between now and year’s end. So I don’t think I’m going to get into commenting on what the discussion points are because I would really sort of just simply don’t want to comment during the negotiation period. But as I indicated on the last call obviously the exclusivity issues frank in the case of ABC ESPN and ABC, obviously, ESPN has been that exclusivity went away some time ago relative to ABC Disney yet it remains a value partner of ours. And so I think what I’d say is it’s all part of the value equation. When you say when they’re moving sports to streaming it’s not exclusive to streaming, right?

They’re simulcast. Sports broadcast will be the big marker for a very long time. And when you just look at the ratings that broadcast games do in the NFL. So I would just simply say — so the lack of exclusivity on sports that — some of which existed before but the newer versions that all become part of the value equation. So I know that probably is not helpful around numbers, but from a standpoint of how we think of it it’s just putting a value to what that reality is and then having a conversation that’s realistic based on an ecosystem that once was all about exclusivity. And when it’s not then that has a different value.

Victoria Harker: And to address the second portion of your question Steven, we use the opportunity. We had a window in time in which the ASR program — the first ASR program finished a few weeks early given some of the compression in the marketplace. So we have as you know an existing $300 million approval program to use opportunistically so we go into the market and use that window over time and execute on $28 million of share buyback then. My expectation is that the Board will likely renew that going forward and we use it sort of opportunistically when we can and see those moments in time. But the ASR program two, which is the $325 million kicks off this week and that will be the primary initial set of buybacks during the quarter.